#BookReview: Of Silver and Sin (The Silver Court Duology, #1) by Kaytalin Platt

She kills creatures like him. He eats beautiful people like her. It's a partnership made in hell.

Like every female orphaned by the Queens War, Tenele Raider is a monster hunter—a Maiden of the Red Court. When the border between her home and its volatile neighbor falls, Tenele is tasked with discovering the source of the black runes burned into the bodies left behind.

To help in this, she’s partnered with a Shade—a conniving beast who feeds on pleasure and pain. Being Ranemir Stroud's jailer and reluctant partner is both a help and hindrance, and as their connection morphs from convenience to necessity, Tenele finds herself sharing more than she bargained to keep them both alive.

As their journey to the truth becomes a path to the warring gods who made them, Tenele is forced to choose between the monster in her bed (and heart) and the destiny she was born to die for.

Of Silver & Sin is the first in an adult dark fantasy romance duology featuring spice.

#BookTour: Secretary of Earth by K.C. Boyd @RABTBookTours

Political thriller, Dystopian theocracy, Corporate Oligarchy

Date Published: October 31, 2024

Publisher: ‎Rebel Island Press

 

 

Lies, fear, and the Holy Bible are the country’s undoing in K.C. Boyd’s second, dystopian tale, a story that all too closely resembles an America in which Project 2025 rules. Vividly depicting the present-day racism, greed, and religious hypocrisy, Secretary of Faith serves as a cautionary warning to Project 2025.

After an orchestrated victory, the newly elected President redefines the country by changing its name to the United Christian States of America. Next, he reduces the traditional number of seats in his cabinet to four, and adds a fifth, the Department of Faith, appointing his lifetime mentor, Christian Hillcox, as its first ever Secretary.

The rule of law is no more. Sanctioned by the administration, violent mobs take to the streets. Media is state-run; neighbors inform on neighbors; loved ones vanish, never to return. When a natural disaster strikes the West Coast, an already well-organized Resistance emerges and Secretary Hillcox finds himself in a battle to maintain both the administration’s narrative and his own position through evermore frightening means.

In a showdown between Good and Evil, the question is—will citizens rise to the occasion and save the Republic?

#BookReview: The House by the Cemetery by Lisa Childs

Six Feet Under meets Succession with a gothic twist after the suspicious death of a midwestern funeral home empire’s wealthy patriarch in New York Times bestselling author Lisa Childs’ dark, twisty, horror-tinged new series for readers of Megan Collins, Samantha Downing, Stacy Willingham, and Rachel Hawkins.

In Gold Creek, Michigan, legend has that the ghost of a local grave digger still walks the cemetery, swinging his shovel, looking for his next victim to bury. But when the town’s wealthy undertaker dies, his estranged daughter must contend with the ghosts that haunt her own family . . .

After she left home at seventeen, River Gold swore she would never return to Gold Creek. Growing up at the Gold Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens was a nightmare. Classmates constantly teased her for being part of the “Ghoul” family, while her own family denied that she was actually a Gold. Her father, undertaker Gregory Gold, certainly never acted like a father. He was far more interested in profiting off other people’s tragedies. But now Gregory has died. And River has surrendered to her mother, Fiona’s, pleas that she come back for his funeral.

But the mourning period is cut short when it’s revealed that Gregory died of poisoning—and Fiona is arrested for his murder. Clearly, Fiona, his third wife and the funeral home’s cosmetologist, is being framed. There are plenty of more likely suspects, and River is determined to prove her mother’s innocence. That she’ll have to work with the sheriff—her high school enemy—is a small price to pay.

With a fortune at stake, River is sure the killer lies among Gregory’s first two wives, their children, and grandchildren. Yet soon, other discoveries will be made, and longstanding secrets unearthed. But when teenagers start disappearing from the cemetery, the danger hits closer to home than River imagined possible. Drawn back into the lives—and lies—of the Golds—she’ll have to use her every resource to keep herself, and her loved ones, safe.

#BookReview: Haunted to Death (Domestic Partners in Crime #3) by Frank Anthony Polito

This All Hallows’ Eve, partners and home renovation hosts Peter Penwell and JP Broadway try not to flip when their newest fixer-upper is rumored to be a haunted house . . . Kicking off season three of their hit reality TV show Domestic Partners is a home renovation project with an irresistible hook. Woods Hall is a lavish 1913 manor home in the Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods, once belonging to the town’s founding family. It also comes with its own ghost. Twenty-five years ago during a Halloween night party, automotive heiress and beauty queen Emma Wheeler-Woods, wearing a white Princess Diana wedding gown as a costume, fell from a third-floor balcony to her death. Or was she pushed? Fiona Forrest recently inherited the home after learning she was Emma’s daughter, and she and her fiancé have hired the Domestic Partners to restore the family property to its original splendor. But ghostly sightings, injured crew, secret passageways, locked rooms, and sabotage beg the Is the place actually haunted? And perhaps more practically, was Fiona’s mother murdered? Hustling to have work finished in time to shoot the finale on Halloween—the anniversary of Emma’s mysterious death—do Peter and JP have a ghost of a chance of also solving a cold case from a quarter of a century ago before someone else takes a fall?

#BookReview: The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska

The Wicked Deep meets House of Salt and Sorrows in this new standalone YA fantasy set in a snow-cloaked kingdom where witches are burned, and two enchantresses secretly compete for the heart of a prince, only to discover that they might be falling for each other.

It's Karnawał season in the snow-cloaked Kingdom of Lechija, and from now until midnight when the church bells ring an end to Devil's Tuesday time will be marked with wintry balls and glittery disguises, cavalcades of nightly torch-lit "kuligi" sleigh-parties.

Unbeknownst to the oblivious merrymakers, two monsters join the fun, descending upon the royal city of Warszów in the guise of two innocent girls. Newfound friends and polar opposites, Zosia and Marynka seem destined to have a friendship that's stronger even than magic. But that's put to the test when they realize they both have their sights set on Lechija's pure-hearted prince. A pure heart contains immeasurable power and Marynka plans to bring the prince's back to her grandmother in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own.

When neither will sacrifice their ambitions for the other, the festivities spiral into a wild contest with both girls vying to keep the hapless prince out of the other's wicked grasp. But this isn't some remote forest village, where a hint of stray magic might go unnoticed, Warszów is the icy capital of a kingdom that enjoys watching monsters burn, and if Zosia and Marynka's innocent disguises continue to slip, their escalating rivalry might cost them not just the love they might have for each other, but both their lives.